Alright, so the last several days, my younger brother and I have been quizzing each other on our favorite teams in specific years. We've been asking each other to name -- say, the full roster of the '98 Yankees or the 2000 Mets. And with that we both did very well -- incredibly well even with very obscure people.
However, as many past Mets as I could name, I admit I can't possibly name all 25 guys on the Mets current roster. Emil Brown just came into the game tonight. Now, I knew we acquired him in a minor-league deal for a player to be named, but when the heck did he get called up from Buffalo? Add him to such standouts as Wilson Valdez and Fernando Nieve, it's hard to believe this team could not be in first place....
Actually, I just checked the Mets' active roster, and Brown and Nieve are the only ones I wouldn't have gotten -- though I would have named Nieve as "Random Pitcher called up to Take JJ Putz's Place."
It's probably a good thing I haven't posted in quite a while. If I tried to keep up with all these Mets health issues, I think my computer's CPU would have burned out from over-use. And I would have been just as likely to hurl my computer across the room (which coincidentally would probably be faster and have more sink than a JJ Putz splitter this year) if I tried to blog about the Mets recently being swept by the Pittsburgh Pirates, despite that already-pathetic team sending away Nate McLouth for -- I don't even remember who... Three hockey fans they found on the street outside the Stanley Cup finals maybe? If the three hockey fans had on Braves caps, it's hard to say if the inept Pirates front office would even realize the difference. They certainly didn't recognize that they've gotten no sort of significant return on trading away McLouth, Nady, and Bay (who shockingly enough may have given the Pirates the best outfield in the league while they were together).
Showing posts with label Xavier Nady. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Xavier Nady. Show all posts
Friday, June 5, 2009
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Dirty Sanchez is back!
The Mets game just ended, and it was full of great individual performances. Pelfrey pitched 7 scoreless innings, Reyes had 4 hits including a triple and double, Wright had 5 RBIs including a 2-run homer in the first inning. But the biggest thing about tonight's game in my opinion was the man who pitched the 9th inning for the Mets: Duaner Sanchez. It was his first Major League appearance since his taxi cab accident in Miami back on July 30, 2006. I didn't get to see it, but the radio announcers said his slider seemed sharp and his fastball had good velocity. But we all know Duaner's go-to-pitch is the change, and he seemed to be missing his spot with that. But that will come. Overall, Sanchez pitched 1.0 inning, gave up a ground ball single up the middle, struck out a batter, and induced two ground ball outs. A strong outing.
I know I'm a Heilman-hater, but I'll mention here that he pitched a scoreless 8th inning, despite giving up a double.
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More on Duaner Sanchez, I just want to include a story here. I've already written the story of how Xavier Nady learned he had been traded after Sanchez's injury created a need for a relief pitcher. As clueless as Nady was that him being traded was a possibility, the rest of the Mets may have been even more shocked. Apparently, Nady was in the hotel lobby on July 31 and preparing to leave to join the Pirates. A bunch of the Mets players were set to go out to dinner and just assumed that X-Man would either join them or be going out on his own. It was then that Nady told them all he had been traded to Pittsburgh. He also told them at this time about Duaner Sanchez's car accident and injury, which the players seemingly didn't know about before. Needless to say, the collection of Mets players was speechless. Nady was an extremely popular player among both his teammates and the fans, and obviously everybody recognized how critical Sanchez was to the team's success.
With Sanchez returning, it's an appropriate time to look back. Aaron Heilman, Guillermo Mota (yes, that steroid-using, lead-blowing @$$****), and Roberto Hernandez all tried to fill Sanchez's role, and none were particularly successful in the end (i.e. the playoffs [Yadier Molina? Are you kidding me, Heilman?]). Heilman is still blowing leads for the Mets, so not much has changed there. Mota was sent to the Brewers in a form of addition-by-subtraction, since the player the Mets received in return, Johnny Estrada, was released just a couple weeks later. Roberto Hernandez went to the Indians to start 2007, but was released by them on June 20 of that year, and signed onto a minor-league deal with the Dodgers. He struggled through a stretch with the Major League club, and is currently a free agent at 43 years old. Xavier Nady is now the main offensive threat of the Pittsburgh Pirates (or a close second to Jason Bay), and still a very popular player (not to mention an early winner of the Non-Mets Player Mets Player of the Day Award here on this site).
I know I'm a Heilman-hater, but I'll mention here that he pitched a scoreless 8th inning, despite giving up a double.
----
More on Duaner Sanchez, I just want to include a story here. I've already written the story of how Xavier Nady learned he had been traded after Sanchez's injury created a need for a relief pitcher. As clueless as Nady was that him being traded was a possibility, the rest of the Mets may have been even more shocked. Apparently, Nady was in the hotel lobby on July 31 and preparing to leave to join the Pirates. A bunch of the Mets players were set to go out to dinner and just assumed that X-Man would either join them or be going out on his own. It was then that Nady told them all he had been traded to Pittsburgh. He also told them at this time about Duaner Sanchez's car accident and injury, which the players seemingly didn't know about before. Needless to say, the collection of Mets players was speechless. Nady was an extremely popular player among both his teammates and the fans, and obviously everybody recognized how critical Sanchez was to the team's success.
With Sanchez returning, it's an appropriate time to look back. Aaron Heilman, Guillermo Mota (yes, that steroid-using, lead-blowing @$$****), and Roberto Hernandez all tried to fill Sanchez's role, and none were particularly successful in the end (i.e. the playoffs [Yadier Molina? Are you kidding me, Heilman?]). Heilman is still blowing leads for the Mets, so not much has changed there. Mota was sent to the Brewers in a form of addition-by-subtraction, since the player the Mets received in return, Johnny Estrada, was released just a couple weeks later. Roberto Hernandez went to the Indians to start 2007, but was released by them on June 20 of that year, and signed onto a minor-league deal with the Dodgers. He struggled through a stretch with the Major League club, and is currently a free agent at 43 years old. Xavier Nady is now the main offensive threat of the Pittsburgh Pirates (or a close second to Jason Bay), and still a very popular player (not to mention an early winner of the Non-Mets Player Mets Player of the Day Award here on this site).
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Daily Updates, including today's "Non Mets Player Mets Player of the Day"
The Mets had a travel day today, and I honestly didn't know what to do with myself. I also had no classes today, and so instead spent my day reading through as many Mets blogs as I could, over and over again -- half hoping that if I did it often enough the Mets would have a game or something for me to be excited about. Of course that didn't happen, so I instead listened to the broadcast of the Phillies-Nats game (which was miserable to listen to -- THROW A FRICKIN' STRIKE! I DON'T CARE IF IT'S A BATTING PRACTICE PITCH OVER THE CENTER OF THE PLATE). Yeah, I'm not pleased about how that one turned out. So with the Nationals' bullpen obviously eliminated from contention for Non Mets Player Mets Player of the Day, I had to wait to turn my attention to the Braves-Pirates game. In the 10th inning, Xavier Nady singled in the go-ahead run for the Bucs. Matt Capps came in for the save, and despite a 2-out triple by the incredibly fortunate Mark Kotsay, the lead held up. That makes former Met Xavier Nady a 2-time winner of the Non Mets Player Mets Player of the Day.
Also in Atlanta, Mike Hampton was scratched about 10 minutes before the scheduled start of the game due to discomfort he felt during his warmups. This would have been Hampton's first Major League start in almost 3 years. Remember when he left the Mets to sign that 8 year, $120 million+ contract with the Rockies (which has since been transferred to the Braves)? I considered him as the Non Mets Player Mets Player of the Day, since that Braves rotation with him back in it was supposed to be the factor that would allow them to reclaim the East from the Mets and Phils. Now, who knows what his situation is... However, I like Xavier Nady much more, and he actually won the game for the Pirates.
Also in Atlanta, Mike Hampton was scratched about 10 minutes before the scheduled start of the game due to discomfort he felt during his warmups. This would have been Hampton's first Major League start in almost 3 years. Remember when he left the Mets to sign that 8 year, $120 million+ contract with the Rockies (which has since been transferred to the Braves)? I considered him as the Non Mets Player Mets Player of the Day, since that Braves rotation with him back in it was supposed to be the factor that would allow them to reclaim the East from the Mets and Phils. Now, who knows what his situation is... However, I like Xavier Nady much more, and he actually won the game for the Pirates.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Xavier Nady, still helping the Mets cause
I was a big fan of Xavier Nady for his half-season on the Mets. It was only due to the misfortune of Duaner Sanchez's taxi accident that the Mets traded Nady to pick up some bullpen help in Roberto Hernandez (and picked up Oliver Perez in the deal, as well). My fan-ocity (term still not trademarked) of Nady is still growing, as he just hit a solo homer in the 8th inning to put the Pirates ahead of the Braves.
On the subject of Nady, his story of finding out he'd been traded still amuses me. He dropped back 30-something (I could look up the exact number but I don't feel particularly motivated right now) games in the standings by going from the Mets to the Pirates in that deal. Here's the story, as I remember it: Nady said he didn't even know his name had ever come up in trade talks, and was at the beach with his fiancee all day. When he got back to his hotel room, he picked up his phone and saw there were over a dozen missed calls from Omar Minaya. "I knew that wasn't a good sign," Nady said. He then called Minaya and thanked him for allowing him the opportunity of being the Mets' right fielder for those previous four months.
"I knew that wasn't a good sign." It reminds me now of Bob Uecker's Hall of Fame Induction speech, where he listed the signs he noticed that he was possibly being released from a team: (1) Walking into the clubhouse on day one and having a coach tell you that visitor's aren't allowed; (2) Having management tell you they want you to consider joining the team as the 2nd Base Coach if they ever need one; (3) Being told by a manager to "Go grab a bat and kill this rally" or to "Go up there without a bat and try to work a walk." Oh, Bob Uecker. We all love you. But Xavier Nady is pretty good, too.
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Edit by Joe Cook at 11:53 PM:
Nady hit another 3-run homer in the top of the 12th inning to put the Pirates up 12-9. The Braves scored two runs in the bottom of the inning, but were finally retired. Xavier Nady, with his 4-7, 2 HR, 4 Run, 4 RBI game against the Braves today, shares the honors with the entire Washington Nationals team (who defeated the Phillies [bullpen] handily today) for my daily "Non-Mets Player Mets Player of the Day." This is the Nationals' second selection this year, and second in a row, as yesterday they won the honor for knocking off the Braves in extras on an extra-inning blast by Ryan Zimmerman (who was teammates in AAU Baseball with David Wright).
On the subject of Nady, his story of finding out he'd been traded still amuses me. He dropped back 30-something (I could look up the exact number but I don't feel particularly motivated right now) games in the standings by going from the Mets to the Pirates in that deal. Here's the story, as I remember it: Nady said he didn't even know his name had ever come up in trade talks, and was at the beach with his fiancee all day. When he got back to his hotel room, he picked up his phone and saw there were over a dozen missed calls from Omar Minaya. "I knew that wasn't a good sign," Nady said. He then called Minaya and thanked him for allowing him the opportunity of being the Mets' right fielder for those previous four months.
"I knew that wasn't a good sign." It reminds me now of Bob Uecker's Hall of Fame Induction speech, where he listed the signs he noticed that he was possibly being released from a team: (1) Walking into the clubhouse on day one and having a coach tell you that visitor's aren't allowed; (2) Having management tell you they want you to consider joining the team as the 2nd Base Coach if they ever need one; (3) Being told by a manager to "Go grab a bat and kill this rally" or to "Go up there without a bat and try to work a walk." Oh, Bob Uecker. We all love you. But Xavier Nady is pretty good, too.
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Edit by Joe Cook at 11:53 PM:
Nady hit another 3-run homer in the top of the 12th inning to put the Pirates up 12-9. The Braves scored two runs in the bottom of the inning, but were finally retired. Xavier Nady, with his 4-7, 2 HR, 4 Run, 4 RBI game against the Braves today, shares the honors with the entire Washington Nationals team (who defeated the Phillies [bullpen] handily today) for my daily "Non-Mets Player Mets Player of the Day." This is the Nationals' second selection this year, and second in a row, as yesterday they won the honor for knocking off the Braves in extras on an extra-inning blast by Ryan Zimmerman (who was teammates in AAU Baseball with David Wright).
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